Veteran Olympian breaks course record at Derry City parkrun

Last weekend, Tommy Hughes set a new Age-Graded record for Derry City parkrun.

Finishing in a time of 17 minutes 50 seconds, he achieved an age-graded score of 92.34%. In doing so he broke the record (of 88.85%) set only 12 days earlier (on Christmas morning) by Tara Taylor who was visiting Derry for Christmas.

As an event that aims to welcome participation from all ages, sizes and running abilities, parkrun uses age-grading as part of its effort to create a level playing field across the range of ages who attend its events.

The age-grade is calculated based on the world record for the age of the runner. So to say that a runner scored a 92% age-grade means that they were running at 92% of the pace of the person who set the world record for that age-category.

Tommy Hughes is a local running celebrity. After winning the Marakesh Marathon in a time of 2:13.59 he represented Ireland at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

He won the Derry Marathon in 1984 and when, in 2013, it returned as “The Walled City Marathon", after a 29-year break, it was Tommy, by then in the Veteran-Men Over-50 age category, who won the race leaving many younger runners in his wake. He has had other wins in Marathons in Dublin, Melbourne and Nottingham.

Tommy also holds world records including the fastest Marathon and fastest Half Marathon, by a man in his 60s and the fastest father and son in the same Marathon.

Gemma Taggart, who officiated at Saturday’s parkrun as Run Director commented: “We hope that Tommy treasures his Derry City parkrun age-graded record along with his other trophies and records.“

Every Saturday morning at 9:30, Derry City parkrun hosts a 5k run along the quay and into St Columb’s park. It is open to all-comers.

Full details, including how to register are available at: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/derrycity/